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Ming "ClearLove" Kai (Hanzi: 明凱) is a jungler for EDward Gaming. He was previously known as Troll and Mann.

Biography

Ming "ClearLove" Kai (also stylized Clearlove) began playing League of Legends in 2011. He currently resides in Shanghai.

Season 2

Clearlove was a famous player for 信长野望 (a popular mod for WAR3). He formed this team along with several other players of an old Chinese MOBA game called Xin Zhang De Ye Wang. Clearlove and Pomelo used to argue over who would play mid lane and who would jungle. The team would eventually disband.

Members of Clearlove's first team joined a team managed by LoveTT called Team Phoenix on June 1st, 2012. These members included Clearlove, Pomelo, Cool, and Fzzf. Despite having so many power names on the lineup, Team Phoenix achieved very little. Clearlove left the team in August, and Fzzf followed shortly after.

On August 25th of 2012, Clearlove joined Team WE, then called World Elite, as the jungler. Clearlove was a second choice for a jungler after Lucky, but he joined the team on recommendation from analyst, Aaron, when Lucky did not take the offer. Clearlove recommended Fzzf for the support position in September after if suddenly left. The previous roster qualified for the Season 2 World Championship. WE went to event in October, just a month after Fzzf completed the lineup.

In the World Championship, Team WE didn't play group stage as the first seed from China. In the quarterfinals against CLG EU, several delays and connection issues caused the match to span 11 hours. WE would ultimately lose 1-2, in part because their Blitzcrank strategy was banned against them. Clearlove played Maokai and Nocturne in these games.

Following the World Championship, Team WE experienced a period of nearly unmatched success. They placed first in an online tournament called Enter the Dragon against other Korean and Chinese teams. They then won the online qualifier for the IGN ProLeague Season 5 and would attend the event in Las Vegas. Team WE advanced through Group Stage through Upper Bracket Finals without losing a game until they faced Fnatic. They still beat Fnatic twice and took the tournament title. Given the rigorous format of the tournament, no one doubted they were the best team in the world.

Season 3

After winning IPL 5, Team WE returned to China for a period of domestic dominance. They didn't drop a single best-of series for a six month period. They would eventually lose to Invictus Gaming in the GIGABYTE StarsWar League Season 2 in the Grand Finals after beating them 3-1 in the upper bracket.

During WE's period of dominance, they were noted for Misaya's high map pressure picks like Twisted Fate. Clearlove generally played heavy farming jungle picks for team fighting while the rest of his team extended laning phases. This style would be tested in 2013 LPL Spring. Oh My God eliminated them in the first Playoffs semifinals.

During 2013 LPL Summer, WE continued to struggle. Junglers like OMG's LoveLing and Positive Energy's Jing controlled early games, making WE's style harder to sustain. Clearlove started to play more surprising picks like Zed, Hecarim, and Nunu, manipulating high scaling to varying degrees of success.

Rumors of WE's internal struggles started to emerge. After failing to qualify for the Season 3 World Championship, WE's momentum seemed to flag. They lost to OMG again at the 2013 World Cyber Games semifinals. This would be the last event attended by WE's legendary lineup.

After WCG, Team WE pulled out from their remaining competitive events for 2013, including the Summer Playoffs. Eventually, Misaya retired, and both Clearlove and Fzzf left the team. On WE, Clearlove achieved 11 tournament victories.

2014 Season

Aaron, Clearlove, and Fzzf joined EDward Gaming at the end of 2013. The owners of the club felt Clearlove would be the sine qua non of the team's success, and acquiring him was a first priority.[1]

Clearlove recommended top laner Koro1, who joined the squad along with U and NaMei. During the 2014 season, Clearlove served as EDG's secondary shot-caller, supplementing Fzzf. Clearlove continued to play a more heavy farm style in the team, and EDG, like WE, stalled out most of their games. During this period, he played mostly assassin junglers like Evelynn and Kha'Zix.

Early in Edward Gaming's formation, Clearlove and Fzzf received a lot of personal attacks from fans for leaving WE and splitting the team. Clearlove would often stream playing only music and not speaking under direction from the club. The motto of the team became "fight back with results."[2]

Edward Gaming placed second in the regular season of 2014 LPL Spring, losing to OMG in every match. After OMG qualified for the All-Star Paris 2014 tournament, Edward Gaming exposed their flaws at International Esports Tournament 2014. Clearlove was a big part of the strategy that won the team their first title. He chose to camp the mid lane and set rookie Xiyang on the back-foot. EDG 2-0'd OMG to take the title.

EDG then placed first in the LPL Playoffs. Clearlove played a faster paced jungle style with more aggressive Lee Sin picks, resulting in shorter games against Invictus Gaming in the finals.

In 2014 LPL Summer, Clearlove reverted to his lower pressure style, but favored more Jarvan IV picks. Despite varying results, Edward Gaming managed to place first in the regular season, 2-0ing Team WE in their final match. EDG then ran through the playoffs, only losing a single game to OMG. Clearlove again played more aggressively. EDG then secured first seed for the 2014 World Championship by beating Star Horn Royal Club in the 2014 Season China Regional Finals.

Clearlove was a focal point of Edward Gaming's poor performance at the World Championship. He claimed he was very nervous during the Samsung White matches in Group Stage and only managed to collect himself with help from Fzzf.[3] He received heavy ridicule for his performance on Sightstone Jarvan IV in the first match. Clips of Clearlove's play from the match were passed around Chinese forums and mocked.

In the quarterfinals against Star Horn Royal Club, Clearlove improved his play in Game 3 after losing the first two matches. He picked Evelynn, which he considered his best champion at the time, and played much more aggressively, snowballing Koro1's Ryze ahead. This strategy worked for two games before EDG lost to Star Horn in Game 5. Clearlove said on his weibo that he didn't feel shame; "The end is also a new beginning."[4]

2015 Preseason

Upon returning to China, Edward Gaming continued to place well in domestic events. They only lost two domestic tournaments during the entirety of 2014: IEM Season IX - Shenzhen to Team WE and NEST 2014 to King.

After Fzzf chose to retire, Koro1 was named captain of EDG, but Clearlove took over Fzzf's duties as primary shotcaller. With the addition of pawN and Deft, EDG claimed their most dominant offseason win against King by 3-0ing them in the G-League 2014 final.

2015 Season

At the start of the season, Coach Aaron said that how well Edward Gaming would do in 2015 depended on how much Clearlove could grow both as a jungler and as a shotcaller.[5]

During the 2015 regular season, Clearlove's style underwent massive changes. When the team dropped 2-0 to Snake, Clearlove's approach seemingly changed over night. He starting picking Lee Sin more and more, and EDG's game pace increased. EDG became known for Clearlove camping Deft's lane to get the AD carry ahead.

When Patch 5.6 rolled out in LPL, Clearlove's approach reverted slightly. His past preference for high farm tank junglers took hold, and EDG once again became a team fighting team. In part due to problems with pawN's health, EDG didn't perform as well in Playoffs as expected. Ultimately, Clearlove's team fighting on Sejuani would be a huge part of their victory over LGD Gaming in the LPL finals.

Upon winning LPL, Clearlove secured his 11th title with Edward Gaming, matching the number of tournament wins he earned on WE. He and Edward Gaming qualified to represent China at the Mid-Season Invitational in Tallahassee, Florida.

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